SKF NOTE: Music photographer Charles “Chuck” Stewart shot a series of full-page black-and-white Gretsch drums magazine ads featuring some of the legendary jazz drummers of the 1950s-1960s. These Gretsch ads remain favorites among drummers-including me. Most of my copies of Stewart’s Gretsch photos are from the inside front or back covers of older Down Beat magazines.
This photo of Philly Joe Jones is from that Gretsch ad campaign. At the time, as I’ve written before, magazine ads like these were among the few ways young drummers could really see what the great drummers were playing. Unless you were a drummer living in a major city, you could hear Jones on records, possibly on jazz radio, maybe on tv, but it is very unlikely you would have an opportunity to see Philly Joe Jones play in person.
I don’t think I’m the only young drummer who spent hours studying these ads for drum sizes, for how drummers positioned their drums and cymbals for height and angles, and for cymbal sizes and types.
With ads such as this Philly Joe ad, drummers could see how Jones sat in relation to his kit, and how he held his drumsticks.
Another unique part of this ad, most of the drummers in this Gretsch series were photographed behind 20-inch bass drums with 8×12 and 14×14 tom-toms. Philly Joe’s set is a 22-inch bass drum with 9×13 and 16×16 tom-toms. At the time, I remember my surprise at Jones playing a “big band” drumset.
I didn’t know, at that time, what a great big band drummer is Philly Joe Jones.
Thank you Gretsch, thank you Charles Stewart, for providing generations of drummers an education and hours of entertainment, through your legacy of fascinating photos of legendary drummers and their drum sets.
Scott K Fish 
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